Monthly Archives: May 2013

I love federal elections – the marginal seat analysis, the gaffes and the wonderful way truth is an afterthought in the campaign. If we sold our products and services the way the politicians sell us their policies we’d either have a very busy help desk or an entire law firm handling litigation in the basement.

The ultimate killer is the jargon. Bile inducing phrases like ‘moving forward’ and stand up for real action combined with the pithy and inane ‘we (insert your political party of choice) are concerned with prosperity, the future of working families, the protection of our borders blah, blah blah.

I won’t even mention the deposed Kevin Rudd’s language of programmatic specificity and what it did for his career.

Do we buy it? Is it going to change your vote on September 14?

So we sit around and read the weekend papers, watch the news or tune in to Leigh Sales  interviewing some over-rehearsed, coiffed pollie trotting out this stuff and guffaw at the banality of it all.

Yet, come Monday morning what do we do?

We find ourselves presenting to a client, meeting a procurement manager, discussing an account with our suppliers or partners and what comes out of our mouths?

Here are just a few real life examples from coaching sales people and their presentations.

‘We have a holistic, end to end solution’ (Do you – I hope it didn’t hurt’)

‘This represents a paradigm shift in the way you manage your business’ (I had a paradigm shift once, but then ran out of toilet paper)

‘We’re looking at a partnership that when implemented will lead to a joint strategy and a win-win outcome’ (Yeah, I want one, whatever it is)

‘We are extremely customer focused’ (as opposed to what’)

‘We’re going to move the goal posts on this deal’ (doesn’t that make it hard to score?)

‘We have an unrivalled, experienced team of specialists that implement best practice methodologies’ (please insert world class, leading or best of breed as you see fit)

That’s enough.

The impact on clients is the same as the impact on voters. It does nothing to progress the chances of people being persuaded to another point of view. It doesn’t differentiate and at its worst, it just causes people to tune out. These are not great qualities especially if you are trying to win a new piece of business.

There is an easy technique that overcomes this whole issue.

Use unmitigated, concrete language.

Here are a few examples:

‘We have six accredited engineers who all have experience implementing the system we’re proposing and will easily be able to do that in the timeframe at the price we’ve discussed’

‘This solution will save you between 25- 30% of your current costs in the first eighteen months’

‘We have 24 people in our contact centre available 365 days a year to handle all level 1 calls, so we can support the system from day one’

This is much deeper than buzzword bingo because it permeates meetings, proposals, presentations and day to day sales calls and it’s a bad habit constantly repeated.

It takes 21 days to break a habit and establish a new one .Let’s build some new sales behaviours by the time we have a prime minister in the Lodge. It’s Time.

Written by Elliot Epstein, CEO, Salient Communication

Elliot has trained and coached over 3000 people throughout the Asia Pacific Region and is a sought after keynote speaker on Sales, Negotiation, Leadership and Presentations.

E: elliote@salientcommunication.com.au

 © Salient Communication 

‘When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I’m feeling sad….I simply remember my favourite things and then I don’t feel so bad’

OK…that’s enough Sound of Music for a business blog.

When we’re under pressure for sales figures, how many of us revert to selling what we like and have sold before, rather than being open to the client’s real needs.

Pre-sales and consulting people love discussing so called ‘proven technology’ because they know it works, there is less fear and apprehension and it makes their lives easier.

Sales people often have their favourites too – favourite configurations, products or vendors, that 64 port thingy that people tend to like, the Collectimizer 2000 that slots in seamlessly or that favoured margin rich service that is an easy sell.

All well and good when it works, except there is a downside. They may not want one.

As the old saying goes ‘If all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a nail’

Product and service biases and prejudices can often lead to clients preferences being dismissed, open discussion about business problems being shut down and a lengthening of the sales cycle as you try to wedge your favourite widget into their business.

Interestingly, in our sales training programs we run an exercise in advanced listening habits and techniques. It’s only six well crafted questions but the average recent success rate from pre-sales and sales people based on over 750 participants is just 2.6 out of 6.

Here are the key areas where professional listening falls away:

1. Listening to confirm what you already assumed before you walked in the room
2. Selective listening – choosing only the parts of the conversation you think relate to you or your product.
3. Blocked listening – switching the subject or switching off because you don’t like what the client has said, especially when they mention competitors.

It’s not too simplistic to say there are a lot of pre-conceived prejudices and thoughts that prevent people from listening to the whole picture.

One company achieved a score of 5.2 out of 6. It was no surprise that they were true consultants and solution  architects with no agenda to push, just a real desire to seek to understand

Whilst no-one wants to re- invent the wheel on every deal, clients don’t want to feel that you’re just re-jigging your favourite widget and dressing it up to look like it’s fresh.

They want you to listen without prejudice and then consider with sincerity what the best options are for their business.

After all, you don’t want them switching off or worse still saying ‘So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehn, Goodbye…..Goodbye……Goodbye!

Written by Elliot Epstein, CEO, Salient Communication

Elliot has trained and coached over 4000 people throughout the Asia Pacific Region and is a sought after keynote speaker on Sales, Negotiation, Leadership and Presentations.

E: elliote@salientcommunication.com.au

© Salient Communication